Wide Cooperation between Israeli Judicial System and Banks in Favor of Settlements

نشر الثلاثاء 02 اوكتوبر, 2018 في تمام الساعة 13:31

Wide Cooperation between Israeli Judicial System and Banks in Favor of Settlements

By: Madeeha Araj,

The National Bureau for Defending the Land and Resisting Settlement said that the Israeli army and its affiliated organs are not only involved in the crime of forging the Palestinian documents which prove their ownership of the land, but also confiscate and allocate those lands for settlement purposes. The Jerusalem District Court issued a ruling last month alleging that the Mitzpeh Kramim outpost northeast of Ramallah in the occupied West Bank was built on settler land.

The occupation authorities claimed before the court at the time that they had handed over the land to the "Settlement Brigade" by mistake, saying it did not know that the land was stil under its control. The court decided at the time not to continue construction work in the settlement outpost, but the Supreme Court's decision did not prevent the "the Brigade" from continuing settlement activities, and providing banks with documentation to enable settlers to obtain housing loans. Those loan documents show the names of the settlers and their access to loans from Bank Leumi, Mizrahi Tefahot Bank.

The National Bureau issued a report on the role of Israeli banks in financing settlements, in which he pointed out that the seven largest banks in Israel support the settlements and participate in financing, and make huge profits from behind. He added that the large banks in Israel provide services that help to support and maintain illegal settlements through financing of construction in the occupied West Bank. They provide settlement services and participate in the construction of housing units expand settlements through access to property rights in new construction projects, and sponsor projects until their completion. Those banking activities facilitate the illegal transfer of Jewish residents.

Within the context of the ongoing Judaization, the Israeli Ministry of Communications and the Israel Railways Company, in the presence of Israeli PM Netanyahu and Minister of Communications, Yisrael Katz, inaugurated the rapid train line between Jerusalem and Ben Gurion International Airport in a $ 2 billion project, travels at 160 kilometers p/h and the airport, which is located 40 kilometers away. The railway passes through land occupied by Israel in the 1967 war near the village of Beit Surik on the outskirts of Jerusalem. Netanyahu said during the ceremony: "This is a historic moment ... I always believed that Jerusalem can be linked to a train network".

Following-up the file of the Khan Al-Ahmar, the Israeli government continues its defiance of the international community and goes ahead with its plans to annex the Palestinian territories and expand settlements at the expense of the people of the Khan. The Israeli occupation forces handed over notices to the residents of the Khan Al-Ahmar to demolish their homes by 1-10-2018. The National Bureau said that the Israeli position is to implement policies of ethnic cleansing against the Palestinians.

International condemnation of the policy of ethnic cleansing practiced by the occupying Power in and around Jerusalem and in the Palestinian areas of the Jordan Valley is growing. In this regard, Head of the delegation of the European Parliament for Relations with Palestine, Nkels Slikotis said that the Israel forcible deportation of the village of "Al Khan Al-Ahmar" is "a serious violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention that amounts to a war crime." "We express our sincere solidarity with the Palestinian people and their decades-long struggle for freedom, justice and equality." "We express our sincere solidarity with the Palestinian people and their decades-long struggle for freedom, justice and equality, support the Palestinian right to self-determination and oppose the rule of Israeli occupation, colonialism and Apartheid in accordance with UN Security Council Resolution 2334. France also assured that the demolition of the Khan Al-Ahmar is a clear violation of the international law in accordance to a statement issued by the Elysee Palace, the meeting between French President, Makron and his counterpart Mahmoud Abbas in Paris.

Within a statistics of the settlement activities, the first half of this year, 2018 has witnessed accelerated construction of settlement units in the West Bank settlements. According to statistics published by the newspaper "Yedioth Ahronoth," the second quarter of this year began the construction of 794 housing units compared to 279 units in the first quarter of the same year. Since the beginning of the year, the West Bank has witnessed the construction of 1,073 settlement units, a 31% increase compared to last year, and the construction of 818 settlement units begin in the same period.